In recent years, the marketing of fully prepared infant formula, juice or other liquid food substances in ready-to-use disposable bottles has gained increased popularity, as has the marketing of other similar disposable containers for receiving separately purchased liquids. Those disposable containers have provided enhanced convenience over the previous hard plastic or glass reuseable bottles. Those previous bottles were designed to be washed and sterilized after each use and thereafter refilled with separately purchased liquid for reuse. The disposable bottle disposes with the time associated with washing and sterilizing bottles and, in the case of the ready-to-use container as proposed in my invention, also relieves the consumer of having to separately purchase milk or formula.
Various types of disposable bottles have been developed. One disposable bottle consists of a hard plastic hollow tube designed to receive a disposable plastic bag or liner which is filled with separately purchased feeding liquid. A rubber nipple is stretched over the hard plastic tube to feed the contents of the container to the child. Once the bottle is empty, the plastic liner is disposed of and the plastic tube and nipple cleaned for reuse. Though that disposable bottle dispenses with much of the effort associated with sterilization, the user is still required to wash the tube and nipple after each feeding and is also required to separately purchase feeding liquid.
Another disposable bottle consists of a hard plastic or glass base or container containing fully prepared feeding liquid. The bottle includes a screw-off metal lid which when removed allows a female ring and nipple assembly to be attached to the bottle to allow for feeding of the child. Though that disposable bottle alleviates the need for separately purchased liquid, use of such plastic or glass containers results in substantially increased costs. In addition, there is with the glass bottle, the additional risk of breakage which can result in injury to an infant or small child.
The present invention obviates the disadvantages associated with those previous bottles by providing an improved disposable bottle that is convenient to use and which can be easily and economically manufactured. The bottle is preferably constructed of flexible, nonbreakable material, e.g., plastic, and thus avoids the danger of injury associated with glass containers.